Searching is searching. You aren't out there looking for something specific...you find what you find. Given the work involved there should be some sort of reward. A new available race is not a reward for the discoveror as the race is open to all.

The luck of the draw. You could find a single planet homeworld and the rest of the game thanks you for finding a new race for everyone. You could find a homeworld with 3 additional planets, and it's win-win. Or, alternatively you could find a 60 planet system you've just become a billionaire or randomly hitting the abort button at the right time.

Hidden systems aren't found by randomly hitting the abort button. I'm sure you guys can come up with some other way to reveal hidden races without having to hose the guy who finds the system and has nothing to show for it.

If you found a system only containing a darkness homeworld, it would be no different than finding nothing. If finding such a system is essentially the same as not finding a system, it seems most reasonable to treat it as entering an empty system while searching for planets. I mean... you can always assume that the alternative is that there is nothing there.

Race home worlds shouldnt be PC owned. Being NPC owned means they can prevent it from being shielded, as well as offering a safer haven come galactic combat. It also allows everyone to spawn npcs on the homeworld equally. The rest of the system is yours. I doubt that one planet will really make that much difference.

Dorn, you can't act all pious claiming that numbers will increase. If anything, a home planet would become quite the target of military engagements come combat due a home worlds "value". That would place new players at risk and cause them to reconsider respawning.

Acting like you guys want to improve the game and get more players playing is merely a facade to the actual desire....filling your coffers.

More players does fill our coffers, as it requires people doing stuff to actually be successful in the game. Fewer players helps no one out.

I am always against things which either increase monotony or disappoint newer members. Beating the odds and actually finding a system is a great thing for scouting teams. Finding something that is useless is basically a massive troll.

Furthermore, I completely disagree with the notion that homeworlds should be Darkness owned. I can't count how many times I've seen the admins say this is a faction-based game. New players should be spawning at their faction headquarters, not on their homeworld. Homeworld spawns create more instances of "screw this game" than they add to the game - nothing says welcome to the game like a 3 day NPC transport trip, or even better, a 3-week wait for pickup.

Most homeworlds do not have value. There are a few where the NPCs are stronger for military or other purposes, but those are not the norm. There is a small benefit for recruitment where you might gain a larger proportion of new players of that race, but that benefit is a stretch.

“If you found a system only containing a darkness homeworld, it would be no different than finding nothing.

- Scarlet”

It is different than finding nothing, as there is a homeworld planet there. This can lead to a new race, possibly more quests and achievements.

“A new available race is not a reward for the discoveror as the race is open to all.

- Dorn”

It certainly is a reward for the discoverer, should they want to move to that new race. All motivations in the game should not be selfish nor be done with the expectation of a reward, so it is a nice gesture for them to reveal it for others.

“If you found a system only containing a darkness homeworld, it would be no different than finding nothing. If finding such a system is essentially the same as not finding a system, it seems most reasonable to treat it as entering an empty system while searching for planets. I mean... you can always assume that the alternative is that there is nothing there.”

This is essentially what I was going to post before Scarlet did. If you want to imagine that it was an empty system, you can do so. There's a lot of systems out there, with varying degrees of value.

There are very very very very few with no value, the fact that the first system found was at the time, the only "worthless" one, is statistically amazing, and likewise hilarious.

You don't *have* to spawn in your homeworld, so I don't see newbies being forced to spawn in such conflict-torn planets (?). They could spawn somewhere else if their homeworld is not newbie.friendly.

Not that I see what's wrong with homeworlds being destroyed once in a while. The Kashyyyk genocide is an important piece of combine history that defined the galactic alliance and helped consolidate the Galactic Empire as a dark, evil force.